Volkswagen Group is the latest automaker to announce that it will adopt Tesla’s so-called North American Charging Standard (NACS), marking one of the last major automakers to adopt what is now a de facto EV plug in the United States.
Future cars in its portfolio of brands – including Audi, Porsche and the group’s EV startup Scout Motors – will get a built-in NACS charging port starting in 2025, the German giant said on Tuesday.
While Volkswagen Group was one of the last companies to hold out, its charging network Electrify America recently announced plans to adopt the NACS standard, a strong signal that the automaker is not far behind.
The announcement comes at the end of a march of other automakers jumping on the charging standard, after Tesla announced last year that it would open up access.
Ford started the trend in May 2023 when it announced that owners of its electric vehicles would soon be able to access about 12,000 Tesla chargers initially via an adapter. Ford added that its next generation of electric vehicles will be integrated with Tesla’s charging port called the North American Charging Standard (NACS) starting in 2025. Since then, major automakers like General Motors, Rivian, Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, and most recently followed by Subaru With its own ads to take advantage of Tesla’s charging standard. Lucid, a smaller luxury electric vehicle maker, announced in November that it would adopt the NACs standard.
Stellantis, the parent company behind a slew of brands like Jeep, Ram, Chrysler and Peugeot, has not joined the NACs standard. The company previously told TechCrunch that it is evaluating the charging standard.